Nihlorgue, who had remained silent until then, finally let his voice rise. Grave, rough, imbued with an ancient echo, it rang out like a warning bell:
"Master... you cannot accept any of the options offered by Satan."
Satan, without flinching, turned her head slightly toward him. Her eyes gleamed with an enigmatic, almost mocking light, while a thin smile slid across her lips. She remained silent, simply watching the dragon speak, as if savoring the moment.
"We cannot trust her," Nihlorgue continued more firmly. "She has betrayed her own, betrayed even her own ideals. Do you really believe she would be worthy of entwining your essence?"
Bakuzan raised his eyes toward Satan. She answered in a velvety, almost amused tone, placing a finger on her lips:
"Your pet is not entirely wrong, Bakuzan... but he forgets one thing: everything depends on you."
She tilted her head slightly, her gaze shining with cold irony. "You, me... and even he, we all know that the last word belongs to you."
A silence fell again. The air seemed to weigh heavily around them.
Bakuzan slowly lowered his head. He felt the weight of Nihlorgue's words like a heavy shadow in his chest. Everything he said was true. Satan was a walking paradox — the one who could save him... or consume him without remorse.
He did not ignore the warnings. But he also saw the reality:
Satan was the only one capable of helping him cross this impasse.
His mind, though forged by centuries of distrust and solitude, wavered.
Should he really grant her even an ounce of trust?
Nihlorgue stood there, motionless, ready to prevent him from making a single step.
Satan remained upright, calm, her smile never leaving her lips.
An almost divine tension saturated the air — a fragile balance between betrayal and salvation.
***
He had once wanted to stand against Madhurya itself. To transcend it, to reduce it to nothing to free himself.
But he knew now that it was impossible.
Madhurya did not tolerate solitude.
It did not allow any individual ascension, no liberation without grounding.
Because Madhurya was not a simple force or cosmic field:
it was the root of all identity.
To try to surpass it alone was like tearing out the root that defines you, cutting the very link that allows you to exist.
And without this root, what remains?
Nothing but a collapse upon oneself — an absolute deconstruction.
A being who transcends Madhurya without support empties itself of its own name, crumbling into the original silence from which it came.
Yet, there was another way.
A superior entity to Madhurya, capable of offering a thread out of the abyss.
If such power granted him a part of its essence, then even by detaching from Madhurya, Bakuzan would not collapse.
The superior essence would become his pillar of existence, his foundation beyond the root.
And this was where Satan became essential.
She alone, among the still awakened powers, could serve as a relay between Madhurya and what overshadowed it.
Her essence, unstable and paradoxical, belonged both to order and transgression, creation and downfall.
But another path also appeared.
Bakuzan could choose to become a fragment of Morlük,
a Lord of Madhurya itself — an incarnation of the principle he wanted to surpass.
For this, he needed the essence of Isissis, the living catalyst of this divine and deviant fusion.
And once again, Satan remained the only one capable of opening the path to this essence.
Bakuzan then felt the weight of truth:
Satan was not an option.
She was the key to his evolution, the agent of passage.
But what worried him more than anything,
was what she truly intended to obtain in return.
***
Bakuzan closed his eyes for a moment, then let out a long sigh.
His voice, deep and weary, echoed in the still air:
— Sorry, Nihlorgue… but I have no other choice.
The dragon of the Void stepped back slightly, his abyssal pupils dilating.
— Master... no. We can still find another way! A fissure, a detour!
Bakuzan slowly shook his head. His gaze darkened.
Then, turning to Satan:
— I accept.
Let's put the first option of your plans into action.
Silence fell. One could almost hear the beating of the Void between them.
Nihlorgue bowed his head, resigned.
— I'm sorry... for not being strong enough to raise you higher.
I suppose I have no say anymore...
He bowed heavily behind Bakuzan, whose face remained impassive.
— Isissis was sealed by a primordial goddess, Bakuzan said.
But I had foreseen this eventuality.
I engraved a seal into my very essence — a passage capable of breaking the seal using me as a portal.
Satan gave an approving, almost admiring smile.
— Hmph… you're not a stupid being, Bakuzan.
You truly are the Black Grief you claim to be.
Perfect. We will break this seal and free Isissis… to trigger the first option.
A shiver ran through Bakuzan.
He furrowed his brows, worry finally piercing his stony facade.
— Wait. When he emerges... he will not agree to absorb me on his own.
He will judge me unworthy or useless. We have to find a way to push him to it...
Nihlorgue slowly lifted his massive head, his deep voice resonating like an ancient drum:
— Isissis is proud. He never refuses a challenge.
If provoked to an absorption duel, he will be forced to respond.
Bakuzan turned to him with a wary look.
— An absorption duel? Explain.
Satan softly clapped her hands, an amused smile on her lips.
— Black Grief's pet understands everything.
It's simple, Bakuzan: instead of a fight of strength, you will challenge him on the plane of essence.
A confrontation where the goal is not to defeat... but to devour each other mutually.
And I guarantee you: Isissis will not say no to such provocation.
Her eyes then fell on the dragon of the Void.
— And you, old spirit? Do you still agree to follow your master, even if I am involved?
Nihlorgue remained silent for a moment, then answered with an almost religious gravity:
— I will always follow my master's path...
Even if that path leads to my own dissolution.
Satan gave a low, venomous laugh before whispering:
— Certainly... you're a good little dog, aren't you?
Satan slowly approached, her gaze blazing with a glow both mystical and mischievous. Her fingers brushed Bakuzan's chest — and immediately, black and purple marks appeared on his skin, winding like cold fire serpents. They pulsed with a living light, almost painful.
Satan — Make him appear. Push him to absorb you...
I will take care of the rest.
She winked at him, then her body dissolved into the air like a warm mist fading into the void.
A scent of sulfur and dead roses lingered for a moment... then vanished.
Bakuzan slowly raised his eyes toward Nihlorgue.
Bakuzan — It is time.
Nihlorgue — Go ahead, master...
The dragon of the Void bowed before dissolving into dark vapor as well, joining the invisible.
Bakuzan, now alone, contemplated the marks on his chest. They beat in rhythm with his heart.
He placed his hand on them and murmured:
Bakuzan:
— If things go wrong... I'm counting on you, Validus.
Then, he took a deep breath and released a wave of dark mana through his entire being.
The ground trembled.
A door of light formed before him — tall, vast, covered with moving symbols, singing in a forgotten language.
The wind raged, twisting the clouds. The sky turned gray-blue, then inky black.
Bakuzan:
— Come out… ISISSIS!!!
A lightning bolt struck the earth.
The door exploded in a roar that tore the air apart.
Then — silence.
The wind ceased, the light faded, and even time seemed suspended.
Everything was calm.
Too calm.
Bakuzan slowly opened his eyes.
His gaze rose, and his breath caught.
Up there, floating in the suspended space of the world, stood Isissis.
His body was draped at the waist in a white veil that seemed woven from light and ruins. Black marks, like living constellations, covered his bare skin. His black hair, flowing like liquid shadows, rippled around him, and his eyes shone with two superimposed suns.
Every word he spoke resonated as if a hundred voices sang in unison.
Isissis:
— Finally... freed from this prison.
His voice made the ground vibrate. Even the world held its breath.
He slowly lowered his head, and his gaze fixed on Bakuzan. A calm, almost mocking smile touched his lips.
Isissis: — Black Grief... so it is you who freed me.
I owe you a debt, no doubt. Or a curse, I do not quite remember.
He set his feet on the ground, his aura rippling the air around him, then added in a peaceful but cruel tone:
Isissis: — I'm sorry... I wasn't able to kill your brothers and your sister.
A mad goddess stopped me before I finished my task.
Bakuzan remained motionless, his face closed, eyes fixed on the god's.
Isissis, leaning slightly, let the words fall like a polished blade:
You must be happy. Your little family had nothing, after all.
Bakuzan gave a slight smile.
His eyes ignited with a calculating gleam as he murmured to himself:
> I can't ask him to absorb me directly... not without risking scaring him off.
So I'll have to play the game during the fight. Provocation will be my key...
He slowly raised a finger toward Isissis, his shadow stretching like a claw on the lighted ground.
— Anyway, whether you succeeded in killing them or not... it will change nothing about what awaits you.
Silence fell, broken by a shattering laugh.
Isissis's laughter echoed through a thousand voices, each staggered, forming a chorus of celestial and infernal echoes alike.
Reality bent under the weight of his timbre: the stones vibrated, the sky cracked, and the whole world seemed to hold its breath.
— Don't make me laugh, Black Grief... Isissis said, his voice reverberating like a storm through the layers of the real.
— You, you would have the power to doom me? I'm curious... what makes you so—
But he did not have time to finish.
The earth screamed.
In the blink of an eye, Bakuzan had already lunged, his shadow sword slicing through the air with a whistle that cut even dimensions.
The dark steel clashed with Isissis's spear of light, releasing a shock so colossal that the planes of past, present, and future briefly collapsed onto each other.
A wave crossed the realities, shattering stars like shards of glass.
Isissis halted, his face lit by a divine fire.
— Let's see... he breathed with a smile.
— So you really intend to disappear?
Then they both vanished.
Their confrontation no longer took place in a single world: it echoed across worlds.
Every strike, every movement rewrote the fabric of time.
They fought in memories, in futures that never came to pass, in possibilities that even some great mythical beings had forgotten.
Their weapons traced arcs of light and darkness that cut through the firmament.
The laws of causality melted like wax under the heat of their duel.
Isissis still laughed, his voices resonating through the collapsed dimensions:
— Not bad... you're not bad, Black Grief.
But you know, don't you? That was just a warm-up.
Bakuzan fell back on his feet, his shadow sword vibrating with contained anger.
They finally stopped, and around them... the world had changed.
It was no longer the same reality.
They now stood on a diamond planet, floating in a colorless void.
The ground shimmered under their steps like a shattered mirror.
Their breaths formed echoes that seemed to cross millions of years.
Bakuzan, without a word, raised his sword.
Isissis smiled, and the fight resumed, this time, without limits.